With digital
transformation high on their agendas, most businesses will be keeping a close
eye on the latest trends in enterprise IT and technology, including networking
and security, and we can expect to see these featured prominently at VMworld
Europe this year.

The overarching
topic, of course, will continue to be cloud in all its forms, particularly
given VMware's developing relationships with AWS and other cloud providers.
Indeed, while VMware claims to run one of the largest private clouds in the
world, it has been expanding its public cloud presence over the past year. In
fact, VMware has made good on its vision of connecting and protecting
applications and data, regardless of where they sit-from the data center, to
the cloud, and the edge. Hybrid cloud is becoming more widely adopted by the
enterprise, so we can expect to see a focus on this and, as with many
businesses, VMware will be exploring the benefits and the challenges of
operating in a multi-cloud environment.

Edge computing is
also likely to be a hot topic, following VMware's announcement
of its move into the space at Mobile World Congress in February. While edge
computing will lead to speed and performance benefits, it's important to note
that managing and making sense of the sheer volume of data generated from the
billions of IoT endpoints at the network's edge will require a degree of visibility
across every aspect of the IoT lifecycle that traditional network monitoring
and assurance tools may no longer be able to provide.

In addition, as
businesses increasingly look to enhance efficiency, agility and cost-savings,
we expect to see discussion around the gathering momentum of software-defined
data centres (SDDC). Their adoption presents new challenges, however, adding
greater complexity to the network.

Consider
VMware's NSX platform--sixteen million VLANs can be deployed across a new
network from east to west, compared to four thousand in a traditional design
environment. But without visibility into these new
environments, businesses are unable to assess their security posture, or tell
if services are performing as they should.

We therefore expect to see more organizations looking to leverage deep
insights that go beyond traditional north - south traffic views, and span the
entire virtualized infrastructure, from the perimeter to the edge. Only with
visibility that includes east - west traffic, and all of the
inter-relationships, such as the applications, protocols and elements involved
in the service delivery process, can businesses have a complete view into
application performance, security protection and user experience.

Lastly, with more
business processes being automated, we're seeing a rise in the use of
artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions helping to identify and
prevent problems before they occur, as well as in simplifying security.

Each of these
technologies plays a crucial role in a digital transformation, but cloud is the
key enabler. We can therefore expect a range of fascinating and forward-looking
talks and demonstrations, but we can be confident that cloud and the network will
dominate everything.

For more on
NETSCOUT's perspective, visit the company at Stand P411, exhibiting at VMworld
Europe from the 5th - 8th November, and speaking at two
sessions:

Hallawell
is responsible for the go-to-market positioning of NETSCOUT. Previously, she
was VP of corporate strategy for Arbor Networks where she led strategic
planning and corporate development activities. Prior to joining Arbor,
Hallawell was VP of corporate strategy at Sophos, a global IT security vendor
where she led M&A strategy, market and customer insight, and global
corporate communications. She was also research VP at Gartner where she led
coverage of the endpoint, email and web security markets and counseled many of
the world's largest corporations, governments and technology providers on
technology, market trends and their strategic implications.